Dec. 7, 2022
Design Day to showcase student technical skills at MSU Engineering
More than 600 students will participate in Design Day on Friday, Dec. 9 – the highlight of the academic semester in the Michigan State University College of Engineering. Hundreds of students will showcase their technical, creative, and team-building skills to solve real-world challenges.
Design Day runs from 8 a.m. to noon in the Engineering Building, 428 S. Shaw Lane, East Lansing, with awards presented at 1:15 p.m. in Anthony Hall Room 1281. Design Day is free and open to the public.
Design Day Executive Director Wayne Dyksen, who is also a professor of computer science and engineering, said the College of Engineering builds presentation and design experiences into the engineering curriculum for all students.
“Design Day is the premier undergraduate event of the semester in the College of Engineering. Our students show off what we do in MSU Engineering and how we do it,” Dyksen explained.
This fall’s Design Day incorporates projects from six degree programs and seven courses involving 616 students on 121 teams.
The 15-week capstone course, which is required for graduation, provides a platform for students to apply the knowledge and experience they have gained throughout their engineering education at MSU. Capstone teams work in groups of four to six, solving real-world problems for big and small companies. Dyksen said 366 students on 67 capstone teams will showcase 41 sponsored projects.
Senior Aidan Lane said the capstone experience is like no other. “Unlike traditional courses, this class really pushed me to learn new tools and take on a lot of responsibility. The work I have done in Capstone has been my favorite at MSU so far,” Lane added.
Here’s a sampling of capstone projects that will be at Design Day on Dec. 9:
• Senior undergraduate students in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering researched and designed projects related to the proposed Engineering and Digital Innovation Center. Teams looked at site design, structure and foundations, transportation, parking and storm water runoff.
Teaching specialist Anthony Ingle said students created projects on a facility they didn’t have an architectural rendering for – forcing them to be inventive and do comparative research. This semester’s capstone class amplified comparable design experiences when MSU was building its STEM Teaching and Learning Facility. Anthony said in spite of not having an architectural rendering to work with, the student floor plan layouts are impressive.
“What a perfect example of Spartan Engineers providing a real-world response,” Ingle added. “This is a hands-on challenge with realistic outcomes for our campus.”
• Team General Motors
As augmented reality becomes more accessible to large companies, new technologies emerge - from remote training to visualizing 3D models in real time. Sarah Palmer said her capstone team, Augmented Reality Utilizing IoT (Internet of Things) Technology, worked with GM using an augmented reality headset.
“We utilized a HoloLens 2 to provide a safe and secure way to interact with the physical world,” Palmer said. “Our comprehensive system allows a user to unlock a door with a holographic button, eliminating the need for a physical key. And, it includes the ability to scan a QR code that pulls up a holographic interactive window showing a video with step-by-step instructions on how to perform an action.”
Team member Ian Hay added: “AR headsets offer many tools and benefits that make modern technology like phones and laptops seem old-fashioned.”
• Team Anthropocene Institute tackled the public perception of nuclear energy as a clean energy source. It created a Nuclear Energy Web Application and provided users with a way to view public opinion through easy-to-read charts and graphics for a constant flow of formatted, visualized data.
"Our software collects social media posts and runs analysis to determine the public opinion of nuclear energy,” said Katherine White. “With our dashboard you can see how the general public's opinion of nuclear energy changes from state to state and over time. Additionally, we can even categorize and compare the contexts of the conversations occurring around nuclear energy."
Grant Carey said team members are pleased with their project outcomes.
“We made a successful software product that provides useful and interesting insight into nuclear energy public opinion. We think that this product will be useful for both our project sponsor and the public at large,” he added.
• Team Vectorform created a Time Cube system - a physical desktop device that tracks time spent on projects through a simple flip of the cube. Users can edit the data and correct any user error before confirming their time entries and sending the data to Vectorform’s billing department.
“This project was a huge learning experience,” said Katherine Rochon. “It was a great opportunity to be immersed with significant development technologies including ReactJS, Node.js, and Bluetooth Low Energy. It offered great exposure to real-world software engineering and collaboration,” she added.
Fall 2022 Design Day by the numbers
• 616 students
• 121 teams
Capstone Projects
• 366 Students
• 67 Teams
• 41 Sponsored Projects
• 36 (87%) Michigan-Based Companies and Institutions
K-12 Pre-College Outreach Programs include:
• 3 Schools + Women in Engineering
• 120 High School Students
• 20 Teachers
Design Day Awards Ceremony
1:15 p.m., Anthony Hall Room 1281
• 11 awards conferred to top Design Day teams
• Judges include faculty and corporate representatives
Background on Design Day
• Six undergraduate degree programs represented this fall: civil engineering, computer engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, environmental engineering, and mechanical engineering.
• Twice yearly event on last day of fall and spring semester (before finals week)
• 29th Year for Design Day (initiated in 1994 by the Department of Mechanical Engineering)
See more on the teams and their projects in the Fall 2022 Design Day project booklet.
Read more on Design Day at MSU Engineering. For more information, contact Wayne Dyksen (dyksen@msu.edu) or Jill Bielawski (bielawsk@msu.edu).
